[Project Log] "Blue Morpho"

[Project Log] "Blue Morpho"

It's Build Time Again !!

Hi Guys,

Finally time to start a new project!

This time i bought an In-Win D-Frame Mini case, and started brainstorming about the Design layout.
Usually when i am about to start a new project, i just go crazy on google and search for all kinds of stuff,
and this time i fell upon an image of a beautifull Blue butterfly sitting on a bunch of small white rocks..
And BOOM there it was, my head was loving the white and blue colors, and it didnt take me long to make an image collage
of all the hardware and designs i wanted for this build.

I knew i didnt just want the Red D-frame to be standard, and found some inspiration from B-negative's LUMO build (AMAZING BUILD!)..
I then contacted my good friends at Parvum Systems, and came up with a nice reservoir design to replace the existing mainboard tray.
(Rendering teaser below)

So thats the reservoir/mainboard tray idea
The plan is to run the tubing from the watercooled parts into the reservoir, and the water will flow through the tunnels in the
res tray, making use of as little bends and tubing as possible.

Also, I am not a big fan of just standard GPU mounting options, and like to do whatever i can to place the GPU any other place
that makes the beautifull water block visible instead.
This time i will try to flip the GPU and mount it on the PSU housing, making the GPU Waterblock fully visible.

The D-Frame mini case itself, is going to get powder coated white, or at least thats the idea so far.
maybe i will change the color later on or do something else mixing white and blue

That should be enough info for a start

Status updates and Build Progress links will be further down in this post, and will be updated everytime i upload new images

OOH WAIT .. allmost forgot.. the name for this project is "Blue Morpho" the name of the butterfly i found :)..

Just a small "What to come" Teaser

Everything in the Blue Morpho is going to be watercooled with parts from EKWB.com, Led's and other cool stuff from Coolerkit.com,
the fluids is from Mayhems.co.uk, The Mainboard is from Gigabyte Nordic, Caseking.de and Super Flower handed over the 1000w Power Supply for this build,
And all the PSU sleeving is from MainframeCustom.com, and again Parvum Systems is the shizzle when it comes to custom parts!
Also E22.biz did some small parts for the build, the finishing touches

Okay guys, first up is some renderings of the custom Reservoir/Mainboard tray,
that Parvum systems is currently working on for this project.
I really wanted to make a reservoir like this, to do as little bending and tubing as possible,
want to keep this build as clean as possible because of the small amount of space there is in this case. Also i want to use the backside of the reservoir/mainboard tray, as SSD mount and
also implement cable routing in it

Will get more renders soon i hope. If not then you just have to wait till the piece is here

Am pretty happy with how this could turn out!...
I really enjoy working together with Justin and Shaun at Parvum Systems, these lads are amazing
at what they do, and allways impress me with their level of detail and skill!
Hope you like it !!

Just a few images of the sexy In-Win D-Frame in it's original Red color.
Realy like the design layout of this little case, also like the red color, if i was doing a red themed build, but i'm not
So this good looking D-Frame Mini is heading off to powder coating!
Going to paint it white, or at least that's the idea so far

Can't wait to get it back again, and get that GPU mount up and running on the PSU cover!

This post is all about the hardware choices.
I chose an Intel Core i5-4690k because that's plenty of brains for this small project:) And i have had several i7-4790k's so time to see how the i5-4690k does on water
the EVGA Gtx 970 SC was chosen, mostly because i really loved the looks of the EKWB.com waterblock that was available for it And i'm allways all about the looks
Gigabyte hit me up with their GA-z97N-wifi mainboard, sexy little powerfull thing, but think i have to mod it a bit, to make it look just a tiny bit more beautifull.
The PSU .. Caseking and Superflower sent me the Leadex Platinum 1000w PSU. Overkill for the other hardware but what a powerfull beauty it is.
Will show more of it when i get down to sleeving all the cables for this build
Anyways, here's the images of the hardware!

Once again David from Mainframecustom.com sent me the sleeving goodies needed for this project.
The MFC teleios sleeving looks amazing as usual, such a tight and beautifull weave.
Really the only product i've worked with that mealts that easy and allways gives a clean look, when you do heatshrinkless.
Also, all these beautiful shades of blue looks so great! Will be a hard choice when i have to decide on a color pattern for the cables.

Cant wait to get all the sleeving done and installed :D. Going to look so good!
Stay Tuned !!

So as mentioned, I didnt like the way the GPU was sitting in the Motherboard, with the fans facing the PSU and only the backplate shown.
I chose the EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 because it had the best looking Water Block from EKWB.com, and obviously i wanted that beautifu block to be visible in the build.
So i tried a lot of different options, trying to figure out where and how it would be best shown. And came up with mounting it on the PSU cover/mount.
I first off meassured out the hole positioning, stripped the GPU down to test mount, drilled the 3m holes and Tapped them, and then mounted the GPU to see how it looked.
I must say, I'm pretty happy with the result! Once the Water Block is attached and filled with liquid, this is going to look amazing.

Sorry i was too lazy to remove the thermal paste before taking the pics lol..
Stay Tuned !!

next up is the "BrainFreezer" also known as the CPU water block.. The Supremacy Evo Nickel, again a high level of detail and sexiness gone into this part. Just looks so clean and stylish, like all other parts from EKWB.
And the Ram cooling block, the Monarch x2, also a beauty..
Have been thinking alot about modding the nickel plated copper parts in the edges of all the blocks, just give it another color or something, but let's se ..

This is the sexy GPU block i was talking about, and the main reason why i went with the GTX 970 SC from EVGA.
I mean just look at this beauty! absolutely amazing design and work by EKWB.com on this one.
Will put up more images of it later, maybe a test to see the looks with the Mayhems Fluid in it
Also i am thinking of maybe doing some work on the frame of the water blocks, painting them or using vinyl to make a pattern.

Will put up more images when i mount the block on the GPU
Hope you like it !!

So here's the Radiator, the fittings and the gpu backplate.
Going to use the EK-HDC 12mm G1/4 - White fittings for this build, and try to use as little angles adapters as possible.
Will try to do all the bends in the acrylic tubing instead, to get a cleaner look.

Since EKWB.Com shipped me allmost everything i needed to cool his project,
i felt i had to try these beauties out. Have heard so many positive reviews on them, and decided to give them a go.
Original idea was that i wanted either dual 240mm rads, or a single 240 in push/pull, so that's the reason why there's 4 fans
but since my effin brain never stops getting new ideas, i decided to only use 2 of them,
and instead mount the pump on the other side of one of them :)..
Anyways, here's a few images of the beauties before i rip them apart and start painting and sleeving them

Was not sure how i wanted the Fans to be painted.
They will not be shown much in the build, so just decided to paint the blades white instead of the stock gray color.
Also got some skye blue vinyl sticker, that i might cout out in circles and put in the middle of the fan blades later on,
Maybe when i do the sleeving of the fans.
To dissasemble the fans, i removed the sitcker, and carefully removed the small locking mechanism that holds the bearings and spacers.
Might be hard to see the difference, but there is one..

So i was unsure about if i should paint the Ram modules or not, and decided to go for the white paint.
pretty happy with the result, but can see a few air bubbles, so have to redo one of them, and will probably also change the badges to new ones later.
I used a heatgun on the EK logo badges to remove them with my knife, and then grinded them a bit with sandpaper, before primer, and white paint.
Sorry the images makes them look more gray ish, but they really are bright white..
More images will come later when i mount them on the ram sticks.

On the Supremacy Evo, I decided to paint the black mount white instead.
Original idea was to cover it with white vinyl sticker instead, but since i was allready painting the fan blades and the Monarch modules,
i thought, why the hell not, let's paint this bad boy ..
Really looks great now, with white base, white fittings, OH and will include a single image teaser of it with liquid (Mayhems Pastel Blue).

The fluids finally came in from Mayhems.co.uk .
My choice of fluid was the mayhems pastel blue, because i think it was close to the blue color on the wings of the butterfly "blue morpho" hence the name of the build
I just couldn't help myself, i had to see how it looked in the GPU block from EKWB.com, and also the freshly painted Ek-Supremacy Evo..
And WOW, looks amazing! the combination of blue and white is just beautiful!
Enjoy

So today i took my time to remove the heat spreaders on my 2 x 8GB HyperX ram sticks,
and installed the EK-Ram Monarch adapter modules instead.
After installing the new heat spreaders, i decided to install the EK-Ram Monarch x 2 waterblock as well,
and obviously i just couldn't help myself, and had to fill it up with some of that beautiful looking Mayhems Pastel Blue.
Amazing!! the blue and white colors just look so good together!,,
Seriously can't wait untill everything is installed in the frame, and it's time to fill that bad boy up!.

picking up the frame from paint on monday, and then new images heading your way!!

So i have some goodies on the way from my friends at E22.Biz
Some engraved parts, SSD covers, Psu side covers, Radiator Grill and some other great stuff.
Will obviously take alot more pictures when the goodies arrive and are being installed.
This post is just a small teaser, and sorry for the image quality, i didn't take the photos,
and was poor light in the work shop.

So today i recieved the EK-XTOP DDC 3.2 PWM Elite Pump from EKWB, and also IN WIN sent me Blue rubber Footstands for the D-Frame Mini,
replacing the Black ones that came stock with the red frame when i bought it.
I will add a few images of them mounted on the white frame before i gave it the final 2 layers of paint earlier today. So just to see how it looked.
I am debating on what to do with the nickel plated housing for the pump, and thought about painting it white, but also thought on using white vinyl wrap instead.
Will see what i decide on tomorrow. Have some more vinyl things to do for the build as well, but update will follow on that later.

Stay tuned for tomorrows updates! finished painting the frame today, and it's drying over night.
Will put up images of it tomorrow.

So at first i had the frame sent to Powder Coating, but when i came to pick it up it was looking white cream with pink spots all over the place!
Obviously i was very unsatisfied with their result, so i went out and bought some spray paint and re painted the whole thing.
Took me a long time to sand it down, gave it a layer of primer, and 4 layers of the Glossy White spray paint, before i had covered up all the pink and was satisfied with the result.
The IN WIN D-Frame Mini is now hanging over night for drying, and I will see tomorrow morning if it needs an extra layer or not.
Anyways here's a few images of the paint process, and my cool paint setup

Had some fun with one of the photos, obviously i did not spray inside while taking a picture, just had a little fun in photoshop and threw some fake spray in the image hehe.

What do you think of my paint setup? Used an old frame for hangin clothes on, tied up some 550 paracord and i had my self a great workstation for the paint job!!
Will upload images tomorrow of the finished paint job.

So yesterday i gave the frame the last layers of paint, and let it hang to dry over night.
This morning i took it down, put on the new Blue Rubber Foot Stands that i recieved from the nice guys at In Win, and took some images.
I must say that i absolutely love the new paint job! Cant wait to see what it looks like with the custom reservoir and the new GPU mount location.
Also nate at E22.biz just finished some laser engraved parts that are on the way. More updates will follow soon.

So today i wanted to see how the GPU would look with waterblock mounted in the white painted frame.
I installed the waterblock on the GPU (update will follow on that later), then filled it with the mayhems pastel blue, and mounted it onto the frame.
I love it! i am sure this is going to look just perfect once the reservoir/mobo tray arrives from parvum.
Can't wait to put this all together.

So today i recieved some custom cut and engraved parts from E22.biz
Absolutely amazing job done by Nate! Got the SSD covers, the engraved radiator side panels, the 240mm fan grill for decoration on the radiator, and the PSU covers.
Everything just looks so great, really stunning piece of work, and the details just took this build to a higher level.
Enjoy the goodies! Another update will follow shortly with the pieces installed and some extra Eye Candy.

Thanks to Nate at E22.biz for these beautiful parts, great to collaborate with you !!

So as you know, yesterday i recieved all the custom made and engraved parts from E22.biz
Everything looks amazing and is just spot on the design we agreed on.
So i decided to install the psu covers just for a small photo shoot, so you can see how it's going to look.
Also quick mounted the Radiator grill and fans to the rad, just so you can get an idea of what my thoughts are with it.
Other then that, i took 300 images and narrowed it down to 15 haha. Enjoy.

So today i had a little time on my hands, and decided to sleeve the pump.
Not much to it, 4 wires that had to be sleeved only, so didnt take too many photos while sleeving, but will do next time.
Decided to use some of the 4pin cable combs i had laying around, just to make it look more tidy in the end.
I think i might have to shorten them up later, but i don't know that untill the reservoir is here.
I went for the heatshrinkless method for the pump, just my favorite way to sleeve, looks much better in the end i think.

Hey Guys,
Just a small status update.. I am currently awaiting the Reservoir/motherboard block from Parvum,
and really not much work i can do until it's here. Would love to do the sleeving, but don't really
know the length of the cables until the block is here. Same goes with installing the parts or making
some sexiness to the motherboard since the motherboard is at Parvum for measurement.
So next photo update will be the reservoir block when it arrives, and it's going to be amazing!!

Also got my new camera, a Canon EOS 70D and some macro lenses, so images are hopefully going to get
even better now. If not then i will go back to my HTC ONE M9 that has delivered all the images up until now.